ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
Calculated Compassion in Emirati Higher Education: Psychopathy's Ethical Rhetoric During Crises
Provisionally accepted
Abdelaziz Abdalla Alowais*
Abubakr Suliman- British University in Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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This study explores how leaders with psychopathic traits in Emirati higher education institutions (HEIs) exploit ethical rhetoric during crises to serve self-interest. While crises typically offer leaders an opportunity to demonstrate care and responsibility, psychopathic traits such as manipulativeness, superficial charm, and lack of empathy which enable a façade of compassion that conceals harmful decision-making. Through qualitative interviews with 18 employees from UAE HEIs, the study uncovers three dominant themes: Moral Theatre: Staged Compassion During Layoffs and Closures, where empathy is performative; Strategic Sympathy: Selective Use of Ethics to Shield Reputations, where ethics are used defensively to protect institutional image; and Aftershocks of Betrayal: Trust Erosion and Long-Term Disengagement, where disillusionment weakens organizational culture and employee morale. These findings reveal how ethical language can be misused as a leadership tool of manipulation, ultimately undermining recovery and long-term institutional integrity. The study extends leadership and crisis management scholarships by offering a regional lens on how calculated compassion erodes trust, especially within HEIs under global and national policy pressures.
Keywords: psychopathy, Dark triad, leadership ethics, Moral Theatre, Ethics as Façade
Received: 29 Sep 2025; Accepted: 14 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alowais and Suliman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Abdelaziz Abdalla Alowais, abdelaziz.alowais@icloud.com
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